In January 1993 a non-denominational church founded in the 1970s called the Community of the Crucified One purchased the building of the Homestead Hebrew Congregation Rodef Shalom. They have churches in eleven states, plus Kenya and Jamaica, but they are strongest in Vermont and Homestead. I’m told their members did much of the work on the building themselves, even removing the stained glass windows, cleaning each piece of glass, and re-soldering the pieces back together. To this day the building remains in great condition. It even has air conditioning now!
I visited the church for the first time in April 2010 with my father and other Hepps cousins. We were welcomed by one of their pastors, Bill Warner, who was genuinely interested in learning more about the Jewish community who had built the synagogue. It turns out that part of the church’s doctrine, he explained to us, is a deep appreciation for the Jewish roots of their faith, which explained why much of the original Jewish decoration remained in tact and especially why they had added their own Judaica as well. Naturally it was wonderful to see the building looking so close to how our ancestors built it; really the only significant change was the redesign of the front of the sanctuary to accommodate the rituals of their services. I suppose if one’s ancestral synagogue must be turned into a church — not an infrequent occurrence — our experience was as good as it gets.
I made a trip back last month to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the building’s dedication. The people I met — the current bishop, his father (who leads the Vermont congregation), one of the ministers, and a few parishioners — were as friendly and welcoming as Bill had been four years prior. They were all interested in my research and wanted to help however they could. One told me that from time to time Jewish groups have come by to visit the former synagogue as part of a what he believed to be larger tours of old Jewish sites in Steel Valley.
What had changed were aspects of the building’s decoration. Though the church still affiliates with the Community of the Crucified One, the sign on the outside renamed the church from “Temple of the Crucified One” to “New Covenant Community Church.” Their website explains why. Along with the new sign, the stars of David and menorah were covered by crosses, and inside the Judaica they had installed was also gone, though the mezuzot remain. I believe these changes relate to the “rebranding” as well as a recent round of repainting.
The remainder of this post are photographs of the church I took in 2010 and 2014, with a few comparison shots from 1992 where helpful. The church’s beliefs blend of Protestant and Catholic traditions; to my eye I see aspects of both practices in their use of the space. Please click on the first photograph to enter the slideshow. My comments on each picture will appear below each photograph; you may need to scroll down to read them. If you’re interested in how the building looked as a synagogue, especially how the bima used to look, please read this earlier post.
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- Note the sign, “Temple of the Crucified One,” with a Jewish star on one side and a cross on the other. Note also that the stars of David and menorah decorations atop the exterior are still visible, though crosses were erected atop the roof and in planters on the sidewalk.
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- Note the new sign, “New Covenant Community Church,” with just a cross. While the crosses from the roof and the planters are no longer present, the stars of David and the menorah are now covered up by panels with crosses on them. Much of the blue paint in the previous picture has been replaced with beige.
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- After the church took possession of the building, the most dramatic change they made to the interior is the set-up of this altar area. The two rooms on either side were built by the church; during services officiants prepare themselves inside and enter and leave through its doors. These rooms contains cabinets of ritual vessels and a sacramental sink.
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- We visited right after Easter, which is why the altar is so heavily decorated with flowers. The cross installed at the back of the altar has a Jewish star at its center, as does the cross on the podium by the children in the previous picture. Note also the angel statues on the raised platforms on either side of the altar. Yes, those are Jewish stars on the lamps they are holding. I’ll have more to say about these later in this slideshow.
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- This is what the altar looks like today. The Easter decorations are gone, as are the trees and angels from the platforms above the altar, now replaced with HD screens, speakers, and banners. The women’s balcony has an impressive multimedia station, and during their services the screens display the name of the current part of the service, the scripture being discussed, or the lyrics of the song being sung.
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- You can just make out on either side the doors through which the officiants enter and leave the sanctuary.
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- The front 4-5 rows of pews in the center and 10-11 on the sides were removed to create more space before the altar. This is where the officiants set up to give communion. On the side you can where their praise band performs during services. Note the windows to the left of the banner on the platform.
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- On both my visits I heard an interesting story about the leftmost window in this section. Notice that it has no paint. The story the church leadership tell is that shortly after they took ownership of the building, they observed the sun’s rays to shine brightly through the glass and burn away all the paint. (One person told me the light shone in the shape of a cross.) They took this as a sign that G-d wanted them to be in the building.
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- However, this old picture of the windows shows that the paint had faded from this window before the church took possession of the building.
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- Looking from the front of the sanctuary back towards the entrance, things look largely unchanged, other than the light blue paint replacing the original dark wood.
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- The Jewish stars on this divider in the balcony are still visible.
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- At the front of the sanctuary to the right of the altar was this installation of Judaica the church assembled. I was told that a leading member of their congregation is a Messianic Jew who lives mainly in Israel, and these are items she brought back with her. This installation was not present in the church when I visited in 2014.
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- Remember those angel statues from before? Here is a close-up of one. When I first visited, the pastor told me that it was part of the original decorations, which seemed highly unlikely to me.
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- This photograph of the chandeliers that used to hang above the sanctuary, taken by Clarice Katz, shows that its lamps were repurposed to become part of the church’s angel statues.
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- As you may recall from the earlier pictures, the angels are no longer part of the altar set-up. Here they are in a basement storage room.
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- And here are their lamps, also in that storage room.
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- Another decoration no longer on display is this print, which used to hang at the entrance to the basement.
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- I was told by Clarice, and it is true — the cabinets in the kitchen are still labeled with their kashrut status! (The handwriting is Danny Stein’s mother’s.)
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- This picture shows the mezuzah at the front door to the synagogue. It and the mezuzah on the basement door both remain on the doorposts to the present day. Note the picture at the top-left of this photograph.
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- This plaque used to hang above one of the entrances to the sanctuary. It tells a bit about the history of the synagogue and honors the work they did.